Saturday 15 March 2014

Langkawi, Malaysia - 14/2/14 - 22/2/13


The beach
Got the boat up to Langkawi along with a British couple who were magicians/entertainers and were going straight up to Koh Lipe. Had the craic with them about timekeeping (boat was an hour late despite being 8.30am) and that the boat showed ‘Captain Phillips’.

Langkawi! Tax free haven of Malaysia, which means I’d hopefully be able to afford to drink! But first we had to get to the main beach. No buses, and cabs with no meters: brilliant, I’m definitely going to end up in a row. Luckily, Jo ran off and found a minibus taking a few travellers at a much lower price.
Jo, me, Josef and Lucie
We hopped in with them. First stop was a place called Soluna where we dropped off a Czech couple. The place looked good, but felt like we were miles away from civilisation. We got off by the main road and hadn’t walked 2 minutes when I spotted Brooke in a cafĂ© on the other side of the road. We went over and got some grub and tried to glean some info on the accommodation here. We then walked and walked looking for somewhere and in the end stayed in Gecko, the same place as Brooke, but we weren’t happy, so we went in search of somewhere better for the following days. We then bumped into Lucie and Josef, the Czechs who were staying in Soluna. Turned out to be not far away at all, so Jo and I resolved to go and stay there for a few days. We went and sat on the beach drinking beers together for a couple of hours, then met up again later for dinner in a cheap little Indian place. Finished the night off pissing around on the beach with the camera, jumping around with a torch in my hand like a muppet.
Chief barman
The bar.... RIP
Photographer Jo
First thing we packed up and checked out, then wandered over to Soluna and checked into the dorm there. Then hit the beach. Bloody baking (I’m sure my tolerance for the heat is waning as I age), so we came back in the afternoon. Went back out to walk along the beach and watch sunset. On the walk back we came across a little bar in the street made of pallets with some music and really cheery guy behind the bar. As we had sent Brooke a message that day saying we’d meet her outside 7-11, which was right next to the bar we thought it would be rude not to have a drink. Two hours and unmeasurable number of cocktails later, we were certain Brooke hadn’t got our message, so we stumbled off to get some grub and bumped into her anyway! She was getting stalked by a little Indian man, so she was overjoyed to see us, as it scared him away. Had one more cocktail, then home to our dorm for bed.
View from top, including skybridge
A little worse for wear the next morning, we got some breakfast, then came back to the hostel to arrange hiring scooters for the day for Josef and Lucie, Jo and I. We got a little lost getting fuel and wound up at the end of the airport runway, luckily a local bloke could see our bemusement in our faces, and told us to follow him. We then proceeded to fly around the perimeter of the airport, then straight across a dual carriageway (including central reservation), and told to just keep going straight and we’d see the signs for the waterfalls. Soon found them and walked up, but as Langkawi hasn’t had significant rain in months, it was less a ‘falls’, and more a ‘dribbles’.
View from another viewpoint
We came back down and stopped near the cablecar, where Jo ran off to find out prices… half an hour later she returned. Eventually we sped round to the other entrance, and Lucie and Josef headed off in search of a beach.
The cable car turned out to be in a weird semi-theme park with a big fake lake and lots of stalls selling ice-cream, so I could see how Jo took so long to navigate the place.
We went straight up in the car, and at one point you are going almost vertically. The views were stunning, and as we were all alone in our little car, I rocked it about snapping away out of all windows. We got out and had a wander around, though sadly the bridge which looked so cool was closed for maintenance works. We then got back in a car and went up even further, and across to a second peak. I was running around like an excited toddler, filling up the memory card on the camera rapidly, but Jo was suffering a little (about 40% heat, 60% hangover), so we sat in the shade and took in the view, then made our descent.
Grabbed lunch in the theme park, then sped off in search of a beach.
Riding home
Went to the very end of the road, past loads of very expensive looking resorts, and then had to turn around as the road just stops at some private gates. Found a beach to have a dip, which got invaded with monkeys around dusk, so we made our way back.
Went back to the bar again for more cocktails, where we met an English guy called Steve, and then met up with Brooke again as she was off to Koh Lipe in the morning and we’d have to say farewells that night. We got some dinner and then a few more drinks, then said we’d see Brooke again, just not sure where or when.
View from centre of the island
We had hoped to go to Koh Lipe ourselves, but only if we had the time and it was cheap. For some reason, the 1 hour journey to Koh Lipe by direct bus is more expensive than getting anywhere else in Thailand, and as we were content with the beaches in Langkawi, we didn’t see the need to move on.

Boring day to write about, but great day to live on the 17th. Laid on the beach reading and dozing, showered and watched sunset, then met Steve, Lucie and Josef at the bar, had drinks, food, and more drinks.
Not a self shot for once!
Bit of a shock the next morning when we went out for breakfast; the bloody bar had disappeared! It was still there when they were cleaning it up a few hours before at closing, but it’d now vanished!

Hit the beach, then said farewell to Lucie and Josef, as they were off to Melaka.
Big eagle
Met up with Steve for dinner, but took the disappearance of the bar as a sign that we should have an early night.

Moved accommodation next morning to a private room with air-con as a little treat to ourselves as Jo and I had been together 4 years.
My view for most of our last day
Met Steve and got some mopeds, then sped off for Gunung Raya, the highest point on Langkawi. Our little moped got up there, but the 15km winding road had really taken a chunk out of the fuel tank. We took some pictures, then coasted (not easy on an automatic) as much as possible back down. Ran on fumes for a few more km until we found a petrol station, then completed a loop of the island. Stopped at the port in Kulah to take a picture of the giant eagle because… well, that’s just what you do in Kulah, there’s not much else to do there!
View from balcony
Headed back to Cenang beach where we were staying, and hit the beach for all of five minutes until Jo declared it too windy, so got ice-cream instead.
Went out for Indian with Steve as it was his last night in Langkawi. Had a couple of beers, then hit the hay.
Slow day next day, just mooched on the beach, said farewells to Steve, and that we’d see him in a few days in KL. As it pissed with rain in the evening we stayed in our room watching Despicable Me. Rocking-and-blooming-roll!


Our final sunset on the island
The 21st was our 4th anniversary, so had breakfast on our little balcony, then hit beach. Went for a coffee in Starbucks as a treat (coffee isn’t that great, but air-con, big comfy seats and free wifi).

22nd was our last day in Langkawi. We did the usual and laid on the beach, then got showered, grabbed a street burger, and got picked up. A boat then took us to the bus terminal on the mainland, and we got on a deserted bus bound for KL once more!

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